INTRODUCTION

1/29 Methods: different approaches to economic history
Walton and Rockoff (WR), Chapter 1
Atack and Passell (AP), Introduction
Schlesinger, “Economic Influences in American History”
Whalen, “Where is There Consensus among American Economic Historians?”

COLONIAL PERIOD: Merchant Capitalism and Slavery

2/2 Economic structure, growth, and development
Schlesinger, “Econ Influences ...”, pp. 49-55
WR, Chapters 2 3 and 5

2/7 Economic causes of the American revolution
WR, Chapters 4 and 6
Simons, “Causes of the Revolution”

2/9 Economic Crisis of the 1780s and the economic interpretation of the U.S. Constitution
WR, Chapter 7 (pp. 124-33)
Moseley, “The Economic Crisis of the 1780s”
Schlesinger, “Economic Aspects of the Movement for a New Constitution”

EARLY NATIONAL PERIOD: Rise of industrial capitalism and expansion of slavery

2/14 Westward expansion, growth, and the transportation revolution
WR, Chapters 7 (pp. 133-38), 8, and 9

2/16 Jackson, the bank war, and economic crisis
WR, Chapter 12
AP, “Money and Banking Before the Civil War”, pp. 94-102
Taylor, “The Economic Crises of 1837 and 1839"

2/21 Industrial revolution
WR, Chapter 10

2/23 Labor
WR, Chapter 11
Nisonoff, “Bread and Roses: The Proletarization of Women Workers in the
New England Textile Mills, 1827-48”

EARLY NATIONAL PERIOD - continued

2/28 Slavery mode of production
3/2 WR, Chapter 13 (pp. 241-55)
AP, pp. 308-16, 326-41, and 351-52
Fogel and Engermann, Time on the Cross, pp. 144-47
Gutman, Slavery and the Numbers Game, 5-25

3/7 Economic causes of the Civil War
WR, Chapter 13 (pp. 255-59)
Schlesinger, “Economic Influences ...”, pp. 58-69
Simons, "Why the Civil War Came"

3/9 Economic effects of the Civil War
WR, Chapter 14

3/14 MIDTERM EXAM

LATE 19th CENTURY: Laissez-faire industrial capitalism

3/16 Industrial revolution continued and rise of big business
WR, Chapter 17 (pp. 326-41)

3/28 Money and banking and economic crises
WR, Chapters 16 (pp. 307-15 and 321-23) and 19 (pp. 321-23, and 383-87)
Moseley, “The Depression of the 1870s”

3/30 Labor
WR, Chapter 18

4/4 Populist movement
WR, Chapters 15 (pp. 285-301) and 19 (pp. 374-83)

4/6 Beginnings of U.S. imperialism
WR, Chapter 20 (pp. 406-10)
LaFeber, “Economics, Ideology, and the Tactics of Expansion”

20th CENTURY: Two world wars and the Great Depression

4/11 Early decades: anti-trust, World War I, and the 1920s
WR, Chapter 17 (pp. 341-45) and Chapters 21 22

4/13 Description of the Great Depression
WR, Chapter 23 (pp. 452-54)
Chandler, America's Greatest Depression, Chapter 1

4/18 Causes of the Great Depression
WR, Chapter 23 (pp. 454-64 and 466-70)
Atack and Passell, “The Great Depression”, pp. 592-618

4/20 The New Deal
WR, Chapter 23 (pp. 464-65) and Chapter 24
Atack and Passell, “ ... the Recovery”, pp. 633-46

4/25 Post World War II
4/27 WR, Chapters 25 28

5/2 PAPER PRESENTATIONS

5/4

5/9 Summary of the past and speculations about the future
WR, Chapter 23 (pp. 469-70) and Chapter 29
Wallis, “The Great Depression: Could It Happen Again?